It's one thing to insult her just now, but now you're insulting her son too? Aren't you asking for trouble?
Jiang Jiuniang's face darkened. If Li Shi continued to speak nonsense, she wouldn't mind teaching her a lesson.
After losing her front tooth, Li was stunned for a moment, then covered her mouth, tilted her head back, and cried, sitting on the ground and refusing to move.
It wasn't that she wanted to cheat; she was just so scared that her legs went weak and she couldn't get up at all.
She was quite loud, and it happened to be lunchtime. Everyone was coming back from the fields to cook, but they could hear the wailing and howling coming from the Lu family's house from a distance. They thought something had happened and rushed over to check.
Aunt Zhang was the first to arrive. She had come to invite Gou'er and Jiang Jiuniang to her house for dinner, but when she came in, she saw Li Shi sitting on the ground crying. Fearing that Li Shi might do something to hurt Jiang Jiuniang, she quickly ran to Jiang Jiuniang and asked, "Jiuniang, are you alright? Did that old hag scare you?"
Jiang Jiuniang felt a warmth in her heart, realizing that Sister Zhang was still the most reliable person.
"I'm fine, I just find this person noisy and disgusting, I can't even get rid of him with a broom."
Zhang's wife nodded, seeing that she was indeed normal, before turning to look at Li, who was sitting on the ground wailing, her eyes filled with the same disgust.
Zhang's wife didn't have a good impression of this Li Shi either. She had married into the family earlier than Yu Shi, so she naturally knew about the connections between the Lu family and the Sun family.
At first, Li didn't implicate her. It wasn't long after Yu married into the family that she and Yu were of similar age and had more contact. That's when Li started to have designs on her.
Every time Li came to the Lu family to cause trouble, she would mention the neighbor Li, saying that Li's friendship with Yu was just to cheat the Lu family out of money and food, which angered Li so much that she dared not associate with the Lu family for a long time.
As she grew older, she became more thick-skinned, and no matter what Li said, it had no effect on her. She could even help the Lu family to scold her.
"Hey Sun Li-shi, you haven't had your good days for long, have you? Why are you asking for a beating? Look at her, if she hadn't come today, would her front teeth have flown away? She doesn't have many teeth left to begin with, what's she up to! It's a good thing Jiu-niang's husband isn't here, otherwise you'd be in big trouble if you didn't get a beating every few days!"
Zhang's wife didn't even need to ask what happened; she knew that Li Shi deserved a beating, so she started cursing right away.
"Don't you even think about how you bullied someone else's wife and children all those years when the third brother wasn't home? Now that he's back, instead of keeping your distance, you dare to come knocking on his door. Aren't you just begging to be taught a lesson?"
When Sister Zhang said this, the onlookers realized that Granny Li had come to cause trouble again. When Old Man Lu came back to move the grave before, she also came and made a scene, demanding money. However, they ignored her completely and ignored her several times. They also told everyone that Granny Li had long since severed ties with the Lu family and that they should not try to establish any connection with her now.
She probably thought that since Old Man Lu hadn't come back this time, only his younger family members had, they wouldn't dare to do anything to her, so she came to cause trouble again. Unexpectedly, she knocked out all of her front teeth.
That's right. When Old Man Lu came back before, he said that it was this third daughter-in-law who protected the whole family on the way to escape the famine. She was the one who fought her way through the famine. Would she be afraid of an old woman named Li?
After everyone understood, they began to condemn Li, saying that she was shameless and didn't care about the respect given to her by her juniors.
"You, you all..."
Li wanted to speak up to defend herself, but when she opened her mouth, she found that her words were not clear and she couldn't out-argue so many people. She was both angry and anxious.
But she also knew she couldn't leave. That bitch He Jiuniang had hit her, so she had to give her an explanation. She could also take the opportunity to get some money back. Her grandsons were all grown up and ready to get married. She needed to build houses and prepare dowries. All of that cost money.
That damned Lu family! They're so rich, even a little bit of money could make their whole family live well, yet they're so stingy. Not only did they refuse to give her anything, they beat her up like this.
She had already planned it out. After these people finished speaking, she would ask Jiang Jiuniang for money. She had only wanted fifty taels before, but now she had to have one hundred taels. After all, she was the one who had taken action!
Before she could even speak, Jiang Jiuniang continued, "Son, keep hitting him. If you kill him, I'll take responsibility."
Seeing the scheming look on her face, Jiang Jiuniang knew that she still harbored bad intentions and that she had to be beaten into submission.
Without thinking, the dog hit her again, choosing places that wouldn't be fatal but would hurt a lot.
"He Jiuniang, aren't you afraid of divine retribution for letting this brat beat me like this?! I am your elder..."
Before she could finish speaking, a few more small pebbles came, this time hitting her nose, causing her nose to bleed profusely.
This time, Jiang Jiuniang didn't hold back. She also hit his wrists, knees, lumbar spine, and cervical spine, saying, "I'd like to know if your grandsons will be filial to you after I cripple you, you scourge?"
Li was so badly beaten that she had no strength left and was in excruciating pain, but her mind was still clear. When she heard Jiang Jiuniang's words, she asked herself the same question: She had devoted her whole life to that family, so if she were crippled, would her family treat her well?
Obviously not. After all, during their escape from famine, the men in her family almost took advantage of her. If she hadn't been so old and thin, she probably would have ended up like her daughters-in-law.
Those people are too busy looking down on her to care for her.
Therefore, she absolutely cannot be disabled!
Thinking of this, she didn't know where she got the strength, but she got up from the ground and ran away in a flash.
Everyone couldn't help but worry about Jiang Jiuniang, and asked, "Won't she go around gossiping and causing trouble for others?"
Jiang Jiuniang waved her hand: "It's alright, at worst we'll just beat her up again. The men in her family are all useless, they always send her here, so naturally they won't dare to do anything this time. Thank you all for your concern, everything's fine, go back now."
The dog didn't make many pancakes, so he didn't dare to keep so many people for dinner.
Someone said, "It's fortunate that the young master is skilled, otherwise Madam would have been bullied by this old woman. From now on, we should all keep an eye on her and not let her into the village. We should beat her out at the village entrance so that she won't disturb Madam Lu's rest!"
These people weren't very familiar with the Lu family, so they didn't dare to call her by her first name like Sister Zhang did, but their intentions were good. Jiang Jiuniang didn't mind, smiled and thanked them, then asked Gou'er to see the guests out.
After everyone left, Sister Zhang explained her purpose: "Come to my house for dinner, I've already prepared everything!"
"Thank you, sister-in-law, but no need for tonight. The dog is almost done cooking. I'll invite your family to my house for dinner another day!"
Jiang Jiuniang smiled and declined. Although Zhang's sister-in-law meant well, she couldn't ignore the situation.
Just then, Zhang Youwei returned from packing up his stall. His two sons, who were studying in the city, also came home from school. Zhang Youwei didn't even bother to go home; he just left his things at his doorstep and ran over to the Lu family's place.
"I saw that Taoist priest today!"
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